Bear Sighting

It is fairly well known that Virginia has a nice population of American Black Bears, and that population tends to favor the habitat found in the western part of the state, including Shenandoah National Park. On the other hand, I have visited the western part of the state many times, including Shenandoah and the Appalachian Trail, and have only seen a bear one time. That one time was a fleeting glance of a very distant bear while hiking up White Oak Canyon Trail.

That is until my recent trip to South River Falls Trail.

I was taking my time hiking back up from the falls. My pace was what I call "bird watching speed" instead of "hiking speed". The total distance of the hike was somewhere around 3.5 miles, and I took 5 and a half hours to hike it. As I hiked, I would periodically stop when I heard or saw something that warranted some investigation. Other times I would just stop to listen and wait on the off chance that something would be moving through the trees and pass me. I was expecting that "something" to be avian. When I noticed movement down slope from me that was dark, furry and not small, I realized my interest in just birds was a tad too focused.

I was so excited about seeing a bear that my pictures suffered. The only photos where you can tell there is a bear are when the bear's head is behind a tree. The bear was probably only about 20 yards away, down slope from the trail. I had no indication that the bear ever took notice of me (which in hind sight is a good thing). My theory is that it had a den down there because it moved behind a pile of brush and fallen trees and it never came back into view over the next 15 minutes (when I decided to move along).

So, here is my lame bear picture. Hopefully you can tell there is a bear in the photo, even if it is headless. At the rate I am seeing bears in Shenandoah, I should see another one in about two years. I will be better prepared to get a good photo when that happens!

Home

I am home from Oregon. The trip was a blast and I hope to go back and explore more of that wonderful state.

The travel home was interesting as ever. It was a two leg trip, first from Portland to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Richmond. As usual, Atlanta was very busy and stuff towards the end of the day started to get delayed. Our flight to Richmond was caught in this. We ended up leaving Atlanta about 90 minutes late. And the best part was me noticing our luggage on a cart on the tarmac as the plane pulled away from the gate. Great.

When we did get to Richmond, I was not relishing the thought of having to repurchase my entire toiletry bag (including electric razor). I am flying to Dallas tomorrow for work, and since you have to put toiletry stuff in a checked bag these days, I appeared to be ready for a shopping binge. This story, however, has a happy ending.

The Delta lost luggage lady said our baggage was put on the next plane to Richmond, that was landing as she spoke. We hung around the baggage carousel in Richmond for another hour until our bags did in fact show up. Yeah!

Some odds and ends that I noticed on the trip home:

• Richmond airport does not charge for wi-fi. Portland airport does not charge for wi-fi. Atlanta airport does charge. Lamers!
• The Richmond airport is being remodelled. During the week we were in Oregon, the baggage carousels were moved from their temporary home to their new permanent home. It was like a different airport when we returned.
  
• One of the new baggage carousels in Richmond broke tonight. This was while about 500 people (several flights came in about the same time) milled around, most very annoyed, wondering why it was taking so long to get their bags.
• Richmond lets you pay for your parking while in the terminal. You can also pay for your parking when you drive out of the airport. You cannot pay for your parking in the parking garage.
• When you pay for your parking in the terminal, you have 30 minutes to get out of the airport, or they will charge you more. You had better have your baggage before you pay for parking in the terminal.
• Paying for your parking in the terminal is harder now because the signs point to pay machines that are not there. This is because of the remodelling, but still highly annoying.

Giant Dunes

How could something so large be so hard to find?

One of the last things that Tammy and I planned to do on the Oregon coast before heading inland was to explore some piece of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The travel book we had purchased described one hike in particular that we wanted to try. Not too long, but enough to get us out into the dunes in an area that was not plagued by dune buggies. So we dutifully followed the directions in the book. This took us down route 101 where we...did not see the landmark.

We knew there were dunes just beyond the trees that the road ran through. We could sometimes see the giant piles of sand. But we could not seem to find the trail that our book described.

After three trips up and down the same 10 mile stretch of route 101, we finally stumbled across the trailhead...in a different place and with a different name than what the book had printed. Sheesh.

Lawn Mower - Part 3

Last week I convinced Rich to loan me his lawn mower. My mower is on the fritz, and he does not need his because he is building a house surrounded by a moat of dirt.

Hey, maybe he can set it up like in that one movie. The good guys disguised a moat of oil to look like regular ground so that they could trick the bad guys and burn them all crispy. I think that movie was The Beastmaster with Marc Singer. Rich could build a moat like that and then use it as necessary to dispose of annoying people, pets, etc.

Anyway, after mowing my lawn with Rich's mower I realized two things:
1. My lawn mower sucks (even if it were able to start).
2. I have this giant orange flower growing in my yard (see picture).

I think this is a Tiger Lily. I did not plant it. It just grew out of the dirt this spring and now I am taking pictures of it.

This is a bad picture (in my opinion). I still have not figured out how to control the depth of field on my camera. I could get the petals in focus, or I could get those weird "corndog on a stalk" things in focus, but not both at the same time. I suspect Jim is going to ask me if I have looked at the camera course on a CD that he loaned me like two weeks ago because that probably would clue me in. Obviously, I have not yet looked at it.

I bet the fire in Rich's moat would be nearly the same color as this flower!

The Italian Garden

Here is a picture of the Italian Garden at Maymont. Lots of cool colors.

We walked into this garden from the far end, down where that dome is on the left. When we first got there, a man in purple nylon jogging shorts (the kind that are just maybe a little too short or just maybe a little too loose fitting or both) was under that dome singing. Loudly.

We were a bit stumped on whether he was part of the overall Italian Garden experience, or just some guy in purple jogging shorts who decided that the accoustics of that dome were worth experiencing. He was not singling badly, but he was in our way. And he was wearing those shorts.

We decided to avoid him and his scary shorts for a few minutes. We took a small detour and then came back. He was gone.

Lunch

I ate lunch at the Stress Free Moose Pub & Cafe in Greenville. It was indeed stress free. I especially enjoyed the piece of apple spice carrot cake that I ate for dessert. It had come out of the oven that morning and was still a tad warm. It was *very* good.

Splash

This was at the very tip of Schoodic Peninsula. I was about twenty feet from the edge. I knew that if I got too close, then I would either get an unwanted shower, or even worse, end up in the ocean wondering how the heck to get back out again. The most precious moment (*sarcasm*) was when somebody let their kid go running towards the edge (he looked like he was five or six years old). The kid slipped and fell about FIVE feet from the edge before one of the parents yelled to them "Be careful honey. The water is very cold." Uh...yeah.